Archive for the ‘SIGHUP’ category

Around six years ago, a group of people got together to create a benefit record for Stillstream radio. Each track was intended as longform ambient, and altogether the compilation comprised close to a full day’s worth of music. It was sold as a DVD on Darrell Burgan’s now-defunct Blue Water Records, which had exclusive distribution of the music for a five-year tenure, and all proceeds went to keep Stillstream on the air. I doubt it sold many copies, a day’s worth of music being a lot to take on as a listener. So here is my seldom heard contribution, longplayer. I was on a feedback kick at the time, this is mostly processed bits of the like. It has its moments. In form, it shares traits with the Kenji Siratori collaboration track I did around the same time, SIGHUP in Seminary Boy Sonata.

And on to the new: (track taken down to make room for new stuff)

As of time of writing, the lone SIGHUP release in 2011, City Passage, is 14 downloads shy of 8,000. Go get it if you haven’t yet, push it over that mark if you are so inclined. Happy new year.

Posted: December 31st, 2011 | category: Audio/Music, SIGHUP | Comments Off on Old and new

Apparently, I let the esauradiostudio.com domain expire on September 19th, ten years after registering it. I don’t actually remember receiving a renewal notice prior to expiry, but ultimately it’s for the best and I’m not especially eager to spend on my vanity more than I do already. Esau Radio Studio was the project name I used for slightly more melodic, occasionally beat-oriented music, which I haven’t really used since 2004, but have kept alive just in case I ever wanted to use the name again.

At the time of the project, I was obsessed with synth music and modular synthesis, especially synth music absent of drum machines when electronic percussion sounds were all programmed, like late-70s stuff by Human League, OMD, and Cluster, and other things like the first two Skinny Puppy records, David Kristian’s modular synth records and the stuff Suction Records was putting out in the early 2000s. I didn’t have a hardware modular synth then, so all sounds were programmed from scratch using only the Vaz Modular software.

The output under the name is by no means great, much of it was a learning effort in developing a personal style, but it has retained some charm. I’ll keep it available here, but I can do without paying the annual $25 to keep the domain name alive for no good reason.

A new, free SIGHUP joint has been released, City passage, by our friends at the Feedbackloop label:

It’s a reasonably short release, three tracks, just over twenty minutes. Alas, it came out several weeks ago, but work has drained my writing abilities enough this past month that only today, my first day of a two-week vacation, did I find the momentum to update here. Much of the material for this release was put together at the same time I was doing the music every day project. Make sure to read the release notes by Alex Stretts, I think they add to the music considerably. The excellent cover art was put together by Jessica Aliaga Lavrijsen and Leonardo Rosado, and the recordings were mastered by madSavVy Productions. This is the first time a third party has mastered my stuff, interesting process. Frequencies were shifted in a way that contrasted with my preconceptions of the music, a mental challenge I really enjoyed confronting.

Speaking of the music every day project, which was the subject of my last update here, it failed. I made it to 90 days, but I knew I was hitting a sort of holding pattern with the quality/structure of each new piece, and it just didn’t seem like a good idea to continue it beyond that point. I have some ideas for making use of the material I collected over the course of the project, but since pulling the plug, I’ve needed a good long break from music making. The project remains online, however, free for all to check out what I accomplished in that time.

One other SIGHUP release I forgot to mention here, a track of mine appeared on the compilation The More Unknown C. Reider released by Vuzh Music. There are quite a lot of contributions on that release, well worth sitting down with.

Update: Acts of silence has posted a nice write-up for City passage. And another interesting take on it from Valiska. One thing that is exciting in seeing these reviews, my goal was to evoke our internal process and experience of place and environment, so far it seems that listeners are picking up on that. Track three was included in a pretty cool radio mix for the Upstate Soundscape show on WBNY in Buffalo.